Thursday, January 30th
The Chastain Farms
Winterboro, AL

I woke up at 7:30 and, since the bathroom was still out of order, went out the back door to pee. When I opened the door, I forgot about my bladder and went back inside for my camera – the view of the frosted, shining landscape sparkling and backlit in the dawn sunshine.

It was stunning.

And freezing.

I got Kristin to come out and see it with me – we went out to feed the animals.

Back in Minneapolis, it was 20 degrees at 7:30am – down here in Alpine, Alabama, it was zero degrees.

(On the other hand, Minneapolis was just getting done having 5 inches of snow dumped on them, just before the morning rush hour…)

The Old Men of Chastain Coffee Shop cannot recall it ever being this cold in this area – although one in the group recalls when it went down to 6 degrees, many years ago when he first moved to Winterboro.

The day warmed up incredibly quickly  – and was in the 50s by afternoon.

But in the meantime, I went to work on the bathroom door – Kimm had mentioned an idea to use some old tin sheets to recover the bathroom door, which was currently a patchwork of scrap boards. Without intending to do more than to look and think it over, I brought a couple choice pieces of tin and some more of the weathered cedar floor boards we’d used for the greenhouse roof and the bathroom floor projects.

But instead, the door just got done, everything falling together quickly and effortlessly into a final result I was more than pleased with – first the two sheets of tin fit together perfectly, then there was just enough board to box it in – and finally, the rusty handle and the cool iron decorative piece all came together …

The kids came over – they had school off, again, and it was Cole’s 6th birthday. When the snow was starting to soften and melt, I taught them how to roll snowballs into huge balls and create a snowman.

The snow continued to melt, as warmth came to Alabama again.